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41 Years Of Recording Industry Cash Flows In One GIF

Digital Music News has released a GIF showing a progression of pie charts that breakdown revenue sources from recorded music every year since 1973. Drawing from data gathered by the RIAA, the GIF shows how multifaceted the recording industry has become over the past three generations as well as how quickly and drastically it can shift and change.

During the first decade represented by the GIF, LPs and EPs dominated the market. By 1983, cassette tapes eclipsed them at 47.5%, but early in the '90s, they quickly gave way to CDs. Oddly enough, CDs maintained a stronghold on the industry until well into the information revolution. The internet had been used widely in households for ten years by the time the discs reached their highest point, comprising an unheard-of 95.5% of the revenue generated by recorded music sales.

In the past decade, revenue streams have splintered in numerous directions. Downloads make up the largest proportion, but the emergence of streaming, subscription and other distribution models has parsed the pie into thinner and thinner slices. Check out the GIF below: